diff --git a/homeassistant/util/json.py b/homeassistant/util/json.py
index 630c39b3ad4..65f93020cc6 100644
--- a/homeassistant/util/json.py
+++ b/homeassistant/util/json.py
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ def load_json(
     Defaults to returning empty dict if file is not found.
     """
     try:
-        with open(filename, encoding="utf-8") as fdesc:
+        with open(filename, mode="rb") as fdesc:
             return orjson.loads(fdesc.read())  # type: ignore[no-any-return]
     except FileNotFoundError:
         # This is not a fatal error